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Change. Hope. Barack Obama promises to bring both to Washigton if elected on Tuesday, and anyone who supports his candidacy needs to seriously consider just exactly what that promise is worth.
Hope, in this context, really doesn’t mean much. Did anybody ever run on a platform of “despair?” But when Obama promises “change,” in the political sense, what is there about this man that would lead anyone to believe that he’s even remotely capable of it, or furthermore, that he wants to?
Look at his political career– it won’t take but a minute, he’s still a rookie, for God’s sake– when has he ever been an agent of change? When he had a chance to challenge one of the most entrenched and corrupt political dynasties in American history, did he buck the Daley Machine? Heavens, no. He became one of the cogs, taking advantage of the generosity of a patron, Tony Rezko, to get the lot his house sits on for half-price in a transparently sleazy real estate deal. Quite the rebel, eh? To say nothing of the fact that Rezko was a slumlord who owned projects in Obama’s district that he developed, in part, with public monies Obama helped him secure. When Rezko’s empire began to crumble due to mismanagement, he literally turned off the heat in some of his buildings in the midst of a Chicago winter. Obama now claims not to have known about those injustices, and if he had, well then by golly, he would have done something about it. Yet this is the guy who claims today to champion the cause of the underprivileged and disenfranchised, and people eat up his B.S. with a spoon and a straw. If he turned a blind eye to the plight of the downtrodden at the local level when some money was waved under his nose, what makes us think he’d run the nation any differently?
Barack Obama is no different than any other politician. He’s no more noble, and no less flawed than the rest… well, okay, he’s better than Ted Stevens, who should rot away the few years he has left in a dark, dismal jail cell. But all of you who’ve placed this guy on a pedestal, believing that he’s somehow different, a better, more moral brand of elected official, are in for a huge disappointment. Let’s see if you’re willing to admit it in a couple of years.
After watching the 49ers-Seahawks game yesterday afternoon (it was the only afternoon game available in NorCal), it became obvious that some serious changes are afoot for The Niners under new head coach Mike Singletary.
For starters, J.T. O’Sullivan will be out and Shaun Hill will be in at quarterback. In fairness, no quarterback has been under more consistent pressure this year than J.T. The Niners’ O line was suspect from the beginning, and injuries have rendered it even less effective. It offers, at this moment, the worst pass-protection in the NFL. That being said, O’Sullivan’s seeming inability to put the ball away and avoid the costly fumble is what has doomed him. Throwing INTs is part of the game, and young, harried QBs are going to throw more than their share, but the sack-strip-lose-the-fumble scenario is a weekly occurrence for J.T., and it can no longer be tolerated, not if they hope to start winning some ballgames. Shaun Hill may have been the better choice to begin with. Now we’ll find out for sure.
The other paradigm shift for the 49ers, and the one that is most refreshing, is that Coach Singletary appears to be a guy who has no patience for stupid, immature behavior on the football field. The 49ersare not without talent– they should have won more than two games thus far– but they’re not so loaded that they can afford mistakes, and it’s mistakes that have them mired at 2-6 right now. Critical turnovers and penalties have crushed them this season, and yesterday was a prime example. Late in the second quarter, when Frank Gore had a brilliant run down to about the Seahawks 3, he managed to get his hand tangled up in the defender’s face mask while straight arming the guy, drawing a flag and backing it up 15. Instead of 1st and goal at the 3, with an opportunity to pound Gore home for a TD, they had to settle for a field goal. But Gore’s penalty was at least forgivable. It wasn’t like he tried to face mask the guy. Vernon Davis drew a 15 yarder in the second half that was sheer idiocy, and Singletary let him know in no uncertain terms that it was not acceptable.
After a 7 yard reception, Davis felt the need to talk some trash (a Davis habit that he has long needed to corral), going so far as to reach out and sort of chuck the underside of a Seattle player’s face mask, drawing a flag and a 15 yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, again putting the brakes on what had been a promising Niners drive. Singletary not only got in his face, not only benched him, he went over during a TV timeout, and told him his afternoon was over and to go take a shower. When was the last time we saw a coach express that kind of disapproval with an NFL player?! Regardless of how stupidly some players behave, no matter how often they get penalized for their own foolish decisions, NFL coaches have been loathe to give them hell. Not Mike Singletary.
Vernon Davis possesses athletic skills as great as any player in the league, and he may be the fastest big man we’ve ever seen, but he needs an attitude adjustment. Coach Singletary means to adjust his attitude, and either Vernon Davis will change, or he’ll find himself on someone else’s roster. The 49ers are guilty of enough physical mistakes every week to make winning difficult, they needn’t burden themselves further by committing unforgivable mental errors. This wasn’t just Singletary’s wake up call for Vernon Davis, it was a wake up call for the entire roster. Get your heads in the game, or get off the field. Mike Singletary’s debut as a head coach may have been more successful than it appears.
My wife and I just returned from Parents’ Weekend at UCLA, where we have a daughter who just began her freshman year, and it was a proud and glorious couple of days. We were able to attend the presentation ceremony at her sorority, and, as part of the “Dad’s Day” festivities at her house, she took me to the football game! Stanford was in town, and even though the Bruins didn’t play especialy well for most of the game, they managed to pull off a thrilling 23-20 win in the final minute. I’ll spare you the details, but for my first game as a UCLA parent, it thoroughly rocked. Petty as it may sound, we’re sending that school a lot of money over the next four years, and I want to root for a decent football team. Stanford was a good choice for their Homecoming game, competitive (Jim Harbaugh will do a good job there) but not dominating. A reasonable chance for a Bruin win. Having grown up in the Bay Area, where they were the clearly superior local Pac-8 (that’s how old I am) school, I was always something of a Stanford fan. Not after this weekend. From this point forward, I can do nothing but hope for the utter decimation of whatever athletic endeavor Stanford is engaged in, for as long as they continue to employ as their mascot that irritating, obnoxious, infuriating tree. I hate The Goddamn Tree.
The Goddamn Tree became Stanford’s mascot some time in the mid-80′s, after their conversion from “Indians” to “Cardinal,” and is an official member of the equally obnoxious Leland Stanford Junior University Marching Band, which has been at the vanguard of obnoxious behavior for as long as I can remember. It’s difficult to rationalize one’s hatred for The Goddamn Tree. It’s a completely visceral reaction, and I’m not the only one. Everyone seems to hate The Goddamn Tree. It may be due, in part, to the fact that, as with most abstract team names, the mascot seems rather pointless. What should your mascot be when your team name is “Cardinal”? Not “Cardinals,” mind you, like the red bird, or “Cardinal,” a priest in robes and mitre, but “Cardinal,” as in the color itself. Good luck with that. Cornell University’s team name is “Big Red,” but their mascot is a bear. Stanford couldn’t go for the bear, their archrivals across the bay already had one, so they went for the obvious… a goddamn tree. Furthermore, there’s just something about the way The Goddamn Tree moves, and dances about, that actually makes you hope that a fight might break out between it and the opposing mascot, and The Goddamn Tree would get its ass kicked. Or a play would result in several players tumbling out of bounds at high speed into The Goddamn Tree and take it out, please, God, anything, just make it stop!! Not that I wish any harm to Patrick Fortune, the kid in The Goddamn Tree costume or anything, but watching it is absolutely maddening, I tell you, maddening!
Which may have been the most satisfying aspect of Saturday’s victory. Forget the thrill of watching the home team drive the field in the last two minutes to snatch away a victory they were lucky to get. Never mind the eruption in the stands when Kevin Craft threw a touchdown pass with only ten seconds remaining to seal the deal. The best part was that as pandemonium raged all around us after the winning score, I looked across The Rose Bowl, and The Goddamn Tree… was… still. The band didn’t play, and The Goddamn Tree didn’t move. For the first time that day, I felt serene. So if that’s what it takes, then there is no choice but to root for a Stanford loss every time out, no matter the sport, even against USC! That’s how much I hate The Goddamn Tree!
Look, nobody wishes ill on Al Davis, who looks pretty ill right now as it is, but after watching the debacle he called a press conference yesterday, it finally became clear: The Oakland Raiders are never going to improve while Al Davis still lives.
The Raiders are arguably the single most dysfunctional organization in professional sports, and Al is the primary reason. As Managing General Partner, Al has called the shots in Raiderland for as long as I can remember, which is quite a while. For the last fifteen years or so, it seems that every shot he’s called has been the wrong one. A once proud and dominant franchise has become the patsy of the NFL, a place where no coach with a track record of success wants to work. Mostly, it’s a place where coaching careers go to die, with the notable exception of Jon Gruden, who got out while the gettin’ was good. Every off season features a parade of new coaching candidates, none of which have prospects with any other NFL teams, and with good reason. Mike White. Joe Bugel. Bill Callahan. Norv Turner (how does he keep getting hired?). Art Shell. Lane Kiffin (Lane, we hardly knew ye!). Other than Gruden, the recent Raider coaching fraternity reads like a list of Who’s NOT Who. Turner is still in the game, but he’s in the process of taking a 14-2 team and running it into the ground, so expect him to polish up a new resume before next season.
No, the only constant with the Raiders over the last 15 years has been Al, and therein lies their problem. The game has passed him by. Quality coaches want to work for owners who grant them the autonomy to do the job, and succeed or fail, on their own terms. Al wants to micromanage, and then dump on the coach when his plans go awry. What NFL coach worth a plug nickel wants to put up with that?
Al’s no longer a maverick genius, thumbing his nose at the NFL establishment while he laughs all the way to the post-season every year. These days, he seems more like a feeble bumbler, who just can’t quite understand why his management style no longer resonates in today’s league. The only chance the Raiders have of getting straightened out is for Al Davis to relinquish control of the franchise, and that won’t happen until he stops drawing breath. With Al, it’s sometimes hard to tell if he’s breathing or not. He’s just so… reptilian. So, just to be clear, nobody’s hoping that Al Davis croaks or anything, but until he does, Raider fans shouldn’t expect much. Besides, it’s not like he’ll be gone. He’ll spirit will live on in Jerry Jones…
